The toilet footstool may have gained popularity from a clever viral video campaign, but new research confirms it really can improve the way you (bowel) move.
You may be going to the bathroom wrong.
While that may seem like a silly statement to make, about 1 in 6 Americans experience chronic constipation.
With awkward doctors’ visits and possible medical interventions with unwanted side effects, many people are trying different ways to make using the toilet an afterthought in their everyday lives.
Relief may come in the form of simply adjusting your toilet to better fit the shape of your colon.
New research backs up the potential benefits of outfitting the base of your commode with a small footstool.
The idea of this small intervention is that it lifts a person’s legs. It gives them more of a “squatting” posture, the one humans use to make when going No. 2 outdoors before we invented modern plumbing.
The toilet footstool — probably best known because of its catchy name and commercials involving unicorns pooping, the Squatty Potty — was the subject of a recent study out of The Ohio State University that looked at its intended impact on a person’s defecation.
“These toilet stools became popular through things like viral videos and social media, but there was really no medical evidence to show whether or not they are effective,” the study’s co-author Dr. Peter Stanich, assistant professor of gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine, said in a statement.
So, Stanich and his team set to see if the claims were actually true.